(Athletics news) Sasha Zhoya aged 19 smashed the world record for the 110m hurdles in the u20 World Athletics Championship, the previous record was held by Aries Merritt where he clocked a 12.80 but Sasha breezed past the record and set a time of 12.73 seconds. Sasha is a different racing breed as the way he explodes from the blocks to clearing the 3 metre hurdles with frightening speed and relative ease makes him a special athlete who’ll only get better with age.
Sasha Zhoya is so good, so fast that he has been in a tug of war between Australia and France for his representation. Born with a Zimbabwean dad, a French mom and staying in Australia, he has the option to represent all three nations. Ultimately he chose to represent France as his country because he always saw his grandparents in France along with his close attachment to his mom helped him make his choice.
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Sasha has broken records all his life, he currently holds the u18 record for pole vault where he cleared 5.56m, he shares the world u20 60 metre hurdle record with his coach Ladji Doucoure where he clocked a time of 7.34seconds. It is tough to say if anyone this young holds the pedigree of records that this man has, it looks like whenever he's on the track he is going to set a new record.
This year he was touted to make the French 4x100m relay team but injury forced him out of the Tokyo Olympics but the exciting prospect of racing in Paris in three years is surely going to motivate him even more. The very fact that he’ll be a French athlete competing on home soil and maybe in different events might encourage him to beat more records. No athlete since Usain Bolt has generated so much hype and stardom like Zhoya has. Are we seeing a superstar in the making? Only time will tell us.